Weather slows Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 search

Tropical Cyclone Jack is hampering efforts to locate the wreckage of missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean.

Up to ten military planes had been due to scour the surface of the Indian Ocean for evidence of flight MH370 today, but have been stood down due to the adverse weather conditions.

MH370 was on route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it disappeared in March 9th with 239 people on board.

No trace of the aircraft has since been confirmed.

“Planned air search activities have been suspended for today due to poor weather conditions in the search area as a result of Tropical Cyclone Jack,” the Joint Agency Coordination Centre said in a statement.

“It has been determined that the current weather conditions are resulting in heavy seas and poor visibility, and would make any air search activities ineffective and potentially hazardous.”

The setback occurred as the Bluefin-21 submarine, searching an area where underwater signals were detected earlier this month, nears the end of its initial operation.

Operated by the US Navy off the Australian vessel Ocean Shield, the submarine is an autonomous underwater vehicle that can identify objects by creating a sonar map of the sea floor.

So far the submarine has completed nine missions.

Over the past week, it has scanned 80 per cent of the circular search area with a six miles radius with “no contacts of interest”.